REVIEW: COINS & HISTORICAL MEDALS: 6 MARCH

Exceptional bidding took the two medal highlights relating to the War of 1812 to multiple-estimate prices in this sale.

The Ship’s Surgeon’s Own Medal was awarded to Dr John A. Kearney, surgeon of the USS Constitution, which was victorious against HMS Cyan and HMS Levant about 100 miles east of Madeira on 20 February 1815. This was three days after the war had officially ended via the Treaty of Ghent, but before word had come through of the fact.

 

The silver-gilt medal, engraved by the Hungarian-American engraver Moritz Fürst, depicts the uniformed bust of Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution right, with battle scene to the reverse. An extremely rare medal, the hammer fell at £34,000 against a guide of £8,000-12,000.

Pitched at the same estimate was the silver medal, also by Fürst, commemorating an important battle on Lake Eyrie on September 10, 1813, when the United States defeated the British who, as a result, became isolated on Lake Huron.

The commander of the U.S. naval forces at the battle was Master Commandant Oliver H. Perry, depicted on the medal, the reverse giving a view of the American and British fleets. The successful bid was for £24,000.

Also selling well was the 1835 East India Company Calcutta gold mohur of William IV, which took £15,000 against hopes of £6,000-8,000; a restrike 1835 East India Company Calcutta proof two mohurs of William IV, which made £12,000 against an estimate of £6,000-8,000; and a Post-Treaty Noble from Calais (1369-77) for Edward III (1327-77), which also sold for £12,000 from a guide of £6,000-8,000.

An 18ct gold medal of the Smithfield Club dated 1905 depicts its patron King Edward VII with bare head, left, on the obverse and the heads of past presidents the Duke of Richmond and Earl Spencer vis-à-vis within circular medallions to the reverse. The edge named the winner of the medal as Breeder Best Pen Short Woollen Sheep or Lambs, 1909, James Flower, Chilmark, Salisbury. James Flower (1853-1932), b. Chilmark, was a tenant farmer who acquired Ridge Farm and East Farm, a total of 1,400 acres, from Reginald, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, in 1918; his descendants run Chilmark Farm under the name Maurice Flower & Son Ltd. The medal took a hammer price of £10,000 against an estimate of £4,000-4,600.

A large gold medal by G.W. de Saulles, struck for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, shows the Queen veiled bust left, with the young head of Victoria left to the reverse. Sold for £10,000 with the fitted red case of issue, the guide was £6,000-£8,000.